Anxious travelers scramble as Iran war strands tens of thousands across the Middle East

“They say ‘Get out,’ but how do you expect us to get out when airspaces are closed?” said Odies Turner, a 32-year-old chef from Dallas who was stuck in Doha, Qatar. “They just have been canceling every flight. I want to go home.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar posted Monday on X that Americans in Iran and Israel, as well as Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, should “DEPART NOW” using any available commercial transportation.

Scramble to get home

While governments around the world worked to evacuate citizens who were stuck overseas, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said that “right now, the options are fairly limited.” He warned there was only so much the U.S. government could do.

“The U.S. Embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel,” Huckabee wrote on X, adding information about a shuttle bus to Egypt the embassy provided as a courtesy “as you make your own security plans.”

Many travelers were holed up in hotels near major Mideast gateways. Others were forced to seek shelter because of airstrikes, or were marooned on cruise ships that couldn’t sail through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We called our children at 3 a.m. to ask forgiveness because we might die and to tell them we love them and to let them know that it’s over for us,” said Mariana Muicaru, among hundreds of Romanian pilgrims who had been stranded on a church trip to Israel.

Muicara, who watched rockets fly across the sky, finally reached Bucharest on Tuesday.

Critical travel route

Anita Mendiratta, an international aviation and tourism consultant who was stuck in Bangkok, said the location of the war would inevitably upend travel and trade.

“Effectively within the Middle East, an eight-hour flying distance covers two-thirds of the world population,” she said. “When that corridor is blocked, it forces aviation to either move far north which is going into potentially other conflict airspace, such as Russia, such as Pakistan, or fly south. That puts huge pressure on the airlines.”

Still, some were slowly making their way out.

Tess Arnold, a 34-year-old travel writer from Seattle, had been caught in Dubai, but managed to get to London on Tuesday and hopes to return home a day later.

After days of the unsettling booms and the site of what appeared to be missile or drone interceptions, she was elated to be on her way.

“Huge relief,” she said by text message. “The entire plane was whooping and clapping.”

Contributing to this report were Danica Kirka in London; Daniel Niemann in Frankfurt, Germany; Kristen Grieshaber in Berlin; Samuel Petrequin in Paris; Giada Zampano in Rome; Nicolae Dumitrache in Bucharest, Romania; Samy Magdy in Cairo; and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia.